Active citizenship is missing in Russia
Putinism, if
we can call it that, and I suspect we can, will only go as far as the people
allow it to, and the sad truth is that they have already allowed it to go a
long way. Hence notions of Putin et al taking over the society are undermined
by the truth that nobody else will fill the tears that any new society has in
its social fabric, no one else will take responsibility for what needs doing to
make things better, and so the state, with all it’s bad habits has no option
but to plough on.
Articles in the western press presuppose an opposition
with a practical alternative, but there is no such opposition, granted that is
partly a result of the state’s overbearing attitude to dissent, but nobody here
has faith in the liberals or communists ability to run things. Nobody really
trusts anyone beyond family and friends.
And then there is
stability: in the west we take it for granted that pensions will be paid, and
policemen and doctors and teachers: or that streets will be cleaned and trains
fixed and passports will be replaced on time. The odd times the smallest of
these systems fails the British scream in rage. In the 90s all of these systems
failed here, along with most other things, and they have a name for that period
here: they call it “democracy”. Now they have had ten years of relative
stability and they have liked it. Being able to ensure your family is ok counts
for a lot more than we realise: raised, as we are, on the assumption that they
will almost always be safe and fed, at the very least, we give it less thought: the
threat is less immediate and the memory less fresh.
This is Maslow’s pyramid stuff: the change comes only
when people are secure enough to feel they can afford to kick back.
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